	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

SHELL HOUSTON OPEN

April 4, 2010

Anthony Kim

HUMBLE, TEXAS

DOUG MILNE: All right. We'd like to go ahead an start off and welcome the 2010 Shell Houston Open champion, Anthony Kim. Anthony, congratulations, may have taken an extra hole, but you got the job done for your third PGA TOUR win. With the victory, you pick up 500 FedExCup points. You talked all week long about the confidence level that you've been feeling, and it obviously paid off. Just a few comments on the week and how you're feeling as you're moving forward.
ANTHONY KIM: It's been a very memorable week, maybe not all for great reasons. But I was in some spots on the golf course I never thought I could possibly see, but I got out of those with pars and birdies this week and feel very confident going into next week.
I think those driving stats are a little bit skewed. Yesterday I hit three fairways, and I swung it like I hit three fairways, but for the week, I didn't swing it that bad. And I just tried to be confident today and know if I get the ball on the green, I'm going to have a chance to make the putt. I just tried to keep a positive attitude and a smile on my face.
DOUG MILNE: Well, with that, we'll open it up for a few questions.

Q. How did you shake off missing the putt the first time on 18? Sometimes that can carry over to a playoff. You didn't let it bother you.
ANTHONY KIM: Very disappointing. I wanted to end it there. You never want to give somebody another chance, especially when they made birdie on last hole, to feel like they're lucky to be in that position. When you give somebody another shot, you feel like you've let your chances go.
At the beginning of the week, if you told me I was in a playoff to win this golf tournament, I don't know if I would fully believed you, because I didn't know what I was expecting with my golf game. But did a great job with my caddy and just staying patient, staying loose, and got the job done.

Q. When was the last time you played and won, played like this, finding nooks and crannies of a golf course and still won?
ANTHONY KIM: Usually it's a chunk slam. I'm home after two days if I hit it where I hit it the way I did the first two days. But I don't know what it was. I feel like I'm grown up. I'm trying to enjoy everything. Trying to embrace being a professional golfer and being on the PGA Tour and just getting to live my dream out here, and there's no reason to pout about a bad shot or a 3-putt because it's going to happen, especially the way the economy is right now and a lots of people struggling, I don't want to kick sand in their face by having a bad attitude out here.

Q. Just curious, what sorts of things were you working on last night with Adam?
ANTHONY KIM: Well, there's been quite a few things we've had to change last year. I had to deal with some injuries, and my swing was functional, but it wasn't repeatable. And so I was fighting it everyday and wasn't hitting my driver very far. We just tried to get back to the basics, set-up, posture. When I'm on with those things, I feel like I'm a pretty good player.

Q. You were in the lead most of the time today. Do you keep trying to attack, or do you play a little more conservative? What was your attitude out there?
ANTHONY KIM: I'd like the tell you I play conservative, but there's no conservative bone in my body. I didn't have a great lie on the par 5, 15, and it was a downslope and I could have hit 3-wood, and for some reason that driver head cover came off. I hit it as hard as I could and ended up making par.
But I felt like I wanted to win this golf tournament there. If I make birdie there, I distance myself and maybe I make a birdie some somewhere else. I knew if I made birdie there, I could distance myself from the pack a little bit.

Q. So how hard was it getting up on the tee box on 18, knowing just a few minutes before you hit a ball, you hit your tee shot in the right bunker, and everybody knows about the water on the left, just kind of what was your thought process when you got up there?
ANTHONY KIM: I didn't even see the water on the left. That water -- there were waves in that water (laughter). I was just trying to focus on my target. My caddy and are just thinking specific targets.
There was this telephone line in the background that we've been aiming at everyday, the wind has been coming off the right, whether it's into us or down. We've been aiming at that, hitting 3-wood everyday.
It's worked. I pulled it in the water one day, but that wasn't because of a bad line but more a poor swing. I said, go ahead and let's just win this golf tournament. You came this far, might as well do it.

Q. Maybe the best sight you saw all week was the ball in the fairway --
ANTHONY KIM: The best sight was when my caddy took the flag off of the pin and we knew we won and it was over, because on that hole, anything can happen at such a treacherous hole. And to be able to make par and hit two quality good shots and two good putts feels very good. Hopefully, I can build off that for next week.

Q. Were you aware that Vaughn Taylor needed to win to get into Augusta, he's from there?
ANTHONY KIM: I was. I read some little thing that said Vaughn can't avoid the question -- that was you. See, what a great article (laughter).
No. I read that and it was -- I knew that was probably on his mind. And Vaughn obviously played a great round today. I think he started at 8-under. He was probably in 3rd place or something like that. Played great, and I heard the roar on 18. I knew he had made birdie. And I gave myself as good a look as I could but had to go one short.

Q. How hard is it to stay composed after you miss that par put on the 72nd hole?
ANTHONY KIM: It's not. The tournament wasn't over. I was disappointed. I'd be lying if I said anything else. But I had a chance to win the golf tournament. That's why I came to Houston.

Q. Two years ago would it have been a different story?
ANTHONY KIM: Two years ago that bag may have been in the water (laughter). I might not have had clubs to go to the playoff. I feel calm out there. I feel no sense of urgency. It's something that has happened naturally and not something that's been forced.
So I'm comfortable with how I'm playing and comfortable with who I am out there. I found my identity. I'm an aggressive player. There's no reason to be somebody else and fire at the middle of the green every time. I think I'm starting to learn that.

Q. Given all that, does that make this win more gratifying than even the previous two?
ANTHONY KIM: I only have three to choose from (laughter). This is definitely the hardest and most patient I've ever been. This is the hardest position I've been in in a golf tournament. I think I've seen every bush or tree or hazard. We were in about seven or eight hazards the first three days.
Now, I played out of a couple of them, but that's a lot of red lines we're seeing by my golf ball.
So I feel like this is a culmination of hard work, and the people around me have pushed me along. I feel so grateful that I've got a great team around me to make sure that I keep my head screwed on straight.

Q. Is there anything you can point to that got you to this point mentally, where you kind of have this different perspective than you had?
ANTHONY KIM: I just look back at last year after the season was over and I was just complaining about everything. I felt like I deserved to win a golf tournament without -- I wouldn't say practicing, because I was injured last year and I wasn't able to practice. I was trying to be a hundred percent for the tournament, but I felt like I deserved to win without trying.
That's not how it is. I've put in a lot of hard work, lots of hours on the new southwest putting green I put in my backyard. And just I've been working. So I feel like when I'm out there, I know I'm going to do well, I know I'm going to make some putts. Whether they go in on the first-9 or not, I know the back-9 they'll go in.
Having that confidence really has propelled my game I feel like to a different level.

Q. Some of the older guys were guys that you talked to and different things. Did any of them have any really good advice or make an impact as you've been moving towards where you are right now in?
ANTHONY KIM: So many guys have helped me. I don't want to name one or two because, you know, there's so many that have helped me. I've learned more by watching them, because what works for somebody else doesn't work for me. I play golf differently and I look at life differently. I like to have fun. I like to enjoy what I have.
And so I'm learning, I'm picking and choosing some of the things that work in my life and work in my game that the veterans used.
DOUG MILNE: Anthony, real quick before we stop, if you would just run us through your birdies and give us some clubs and yards as best you recall.
ANTHONY KIM: The first hole I hit a driver, 9-iron, just over the green, about 15 feet and made that for birdie.
4, I hit driver in the bunker, wedge, 8-iron to about 5 feet and made that for birdie.
8, hit driver, 5-iron, chipped up to 3 feet and made it for birdie.
12, I hit a driver into the greenside bunker and got up and down from about 30 yards.
DOUG MILNE: Anthony, congratulations, best of luck at Augusta.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297